kanda

Hi Fawaz,

My understanding is that your son will not become a US citizen just because you become a US citizen. If you were a citizen at the time of his birth, the situation might be different.

As a citizen, you would be able to file a petition to have him enter the US. This is done through the form I-130.

Pakistan is a high fraud country and everyone knows that including you.

"learning a lecture from a bunch of liars themselves". Talk the talk.

Wow, first a jab at the UK and now a jab at Pakistan? Is that really necessary?

Yep, make sure to have the birth certificates there, certified by the proper agency, even if the kids are adults.

Getting extra papers is always a pain but you'll be thankful at the interview when you don't get a request for missing documents.

Just want to say that I wasn't a site-checker and it didn't hurt our chances whatsoever! We got NOA1 and NOA2 via the mail without a problem, never experienced any negatives due to not monitoring the USCIS site

So, by all means, check all you want!! But, if you stop checking, nothing bad is going to happen to your case.

well with the government shut down coming up,looks like its time to quit

Not necessarily - since USCIS is largely fee-supported, I've heard that it won't be greatly affected by a shut-down.

Update in case anyone ends up looking at this in the future... we were able to get all of the sentencing documents together and our lawyer wrote up an argument that the crimes did not demonstrate moral turpitude. According to our lawyers, the crimes he was convicted of do not necessarily signify inadmissibility. This packet was put together quickly, and we were able to keep our original interview date (*today!*). This saved us a LOT of money/time/frustration, and will allow my fiance to return to his hometown and job.

The interviewer at the Lima embassy was shocked to see these papers. Initially she thought it was very suspicious that he was reporting these crimes although his Police, Judicial and Penal background checks were all clear. However, she seemed to have been new to the job, per my fiance, and she consulted (loudly and animatedly) with several other workers. They asked my fiance very little, though he was prepared to answer questions. Mostly, they pored over the papers and talked amongst themselves (within earshot of everyone else in the room).

Eventually they decided that, since there was a packet from the lawyer, it should be taken under consideration. I am SO HAPPY that we worked through this with a lawyer.

We didn't receive any "colored paper"/request for additional information. They took his passport and said they'll send it to him after the decision is made. We're not sure how long that will be, but I'll continue to update in case someone encounters a similar situation in the future.

He has to keep his answers brief, yes, no if possible and no elaboration that might "hang" him on some other issue or open another can of worms not related to what you are already dealing with.

Yes, this will be a challenge for us. I'll make sure that he knows how important the preparation is; and you're right, we probably couldn't get through all of that by Thursday morning.

Thanks Bob.

Since I know more about what really happened, I admit that it is hard for me to step back and look only at the rulings as they are and as they'll be seen at the consulate (and, hopefully, later at the AOS stage). I'm glad that we can get outside opinions, both from you guys and from the lawyers, to help us understand what the reaction will be. My first reaction to your post is "no, but he wasn't drinking!! they made that part up!!"... but in the eyes of USCIS he was, and that's what we'll need to move forward with. We're talking about drug cartels here, and their collusion with local police at higher levels, and the destruction of a subordinate's life in order to maintain that relationship. When my fiance talks about this in Peru (which he very rarely does, as it's dangerous), people understand that those are the implications.

But that's not the reading USCIS will take, and it is what it is.

So, stepping back, looking at it as something similar to vehicular manslaughter... I think we can accept and move forward with that. We can try to keep that perspective, and your response helps me see it in that light. My lawyer hasn't said yet that she thinks he may be ineligible, or that a waiver will be necessary, but we should find out soon enough.

Thanks again!

Its good that you have retained a lawyer for your situation, but can I ask, are you disputing the courts decision, or are you saying that they got it right?

There are two different cases here, the judicial case and the police case. They got the judicial case right but the police case is a nightmare. However, we don't have much choice but to stick with the court records.

The circumstances were severely and deliberately misrepresented - he did not abandon his post, and he was certainly not drunk at a bar. There's lots of dangerous sketchiness involved here. There was no trial related to his police charges, he was simply handed a sentence.

We don't have proof of what really happened, and trying to get proof could be extraordinarily dangerous for my fiance and potentially his entire family. We aren't in a position to dispute anything here (everything was formally archived years ago anyhow).

Luckily, the evidence (wound position, testimony, etc) made the physical events that had taken place fairly obvious. This is why his charge was reduced from "homicidio simple" to "homicidio culposo". That part, they got right. He was threatened, he grabbed his gun, the other man physically threw him off balance, the gun went off, the other man was shot and died from his wounds (they were in the middle of the jungle without access to medical care). I don't mean to be flippant about the loss of a life, but my fiance has already paid heavily for this unfortunate series of events that occurred when he was only 22.

Ok, the "homocidio culposo" and abandoning his post are both inadmissible crimes. There would be an exception if the maximum sentence was one year or less, and the imposed sentence was six months or less. An I-601 hardship waiver may be possible, but not if the consulate concludes that "homicidio culposo" constitutes murder. No waiver can be granted for someone convicted of murder or torture, or conspiracy to commit murder or torture.

I would listen to your attorney here.

I'm now understanding some of the things my lawyer had asked about in the past, the purpose of which hadn't been fully explained. My fiance had an opportunity to re-enter the police by paying a bribe, but he did not do so. The lawyer really wanted some documentation of this and I think it was to demonstrate lack of moral turpitude. However, since he didn't pay the bribe, we don't have that proof - irony!!

Would "homicidio culposo" be inadmissible in this case, since he received no jail time and no punishment other than probation? He had originally been charged with "homicidio simple", which is often translated as voluntary manslaughter, but that charge was converted/reduced once the evidence was viewed. Although it's difficult to come up with a precise translation, homicidio culposo seems to connote involuntary and/or negligent manslaughter -- unfortunately these definitions seem to vary by country (in Colombia, the same charge appears to carry a 2-6 year sentence). This was a freak accident and that's how the court saw it. But the conviction of "homicidio culposo" would constitute inadmissibility regardless of the other factors?

Thanks very much for your advice. I feel much better to know that seeking a waiver might provide another option for us; we'll need to extend my petition which expires in early June, but that's a much better alternative than a rejection

Was it an accident, what if it wasn't? a waiver of extreme hardship will be needed, this individual is inadmissible to the US. The US Consulate might look at the conviction differently.

So, it was definitely an accident and the court papers make that clear. Nonetheless, it looks like we may need to see about a waiver. Thanks.

Thanks again, so much, for the information about admissibility and waivers. It has been extremely helpful.

I'm not sure about the maximum for "homicidio culposo" in Peru, but in news reports it's not uncommon to see people receive 4 years with that conviction.

The laws for police sentencing have changed so drastically since that time that I'm not sure what to look at. The 2006 code states that with a sentence under 2 years, he should not have been separated from his police duty... The 2006 maximum for abandonment of post is 4 years and 90 to 190 days (quite specific!), and I'm not seeing a general "crime against honor and decorum" listed in 2006.

Okay... the internet still weirds me out, but I don't know where else to turn! Glad you guys are here.

My fiance was serving as a sub-official (bottom level) in the police in 1997; he was 21. This isn't an accurate story, but it's what's in the documents that we'll have to present:

According to the court ruling, while serving on night duty he and his co-guard left their posts and went to drink. While "at the bar", he still had his gun on him. He was accosted by another man, and foolishly grabbed for his gun. The man's actions threw him off balance, resulting in the man being shot and killed.

My fiance was convicted of manslaughter ("homicido culposo", judicial sentence, 1 year probation, not on background but we've always had intention to report) and abandonment of his police duties plus crime against honor and decorum (these shows up on his military antecedents; he completed a 6 months sentence in a specialized police jail).

Thanks for any help.

Thank you very much for this information about inadmissible crimes and waivers. This is something I didn't know about and will look into!

Very true! Although I know each case is unique, I'm hoping someone out there will have some experience with going through the K1 interview process without a 100% clean slate.

(My fiance is a very good person; this does not involve drugs/assault/organized crime/any intentional harm to others. It does involve a tragic accident which resulted in probation - no judicial jail time - along with dismissal from his post as a policeman and discipline within the police).

Hey guys,

My case has gotten more complicated than I ever could have imagined. My fiance had a background incident relating to a very unfortunate accident that occurred in 1997. We assumed that since the case was closed and it doesn't show up in his background check, we could mention it in the application, show proof that the case was closed and the rest of his record is spotless, and it would be alright.

However, we consulted with a lawyer and were told that might not work out. She advises that we postpone our interview, which is scheduled for next Thursday, until we can get more papers together and she is able to analyze them.

I would greatly prefer to follow her advice, but my poor fiance has been running around like a chicken with his head cut off for months, trying to gather all of the documents needed for the interview. Sitting at lines in banks and various offices has become his full-time job and he just wants it to be over with. We aren't planning for him to travel to the US until June, and he would love to work before that - he has job offer that starts April 11.

His position is that if he is going to get rejected by the embassy, he will get rejected - regardless of the lawyer's analysis. We lucked out and ended up with a very reputable lawyer. But he'll go in to the interview with the same sentencing papers, whether or not he hears her advice first.

Any thoughts on this? Especially from the standpoint of the usefulness of legal advice in a situation like this (full disclosure: I'm hoping you'll say to listen to the lawyer, but if you have a different opinion, I'd like to hear that as well!).

Wow, that is *SO* fast!!!!! Amazing, you guys should count yourself extremely lucky.

The wait from here depends on each country. Ours has ended up going much more quickly than we anticipated, and we had to slow it down a bit and postpone the interview! But other embassies/consulates don't schedule interviews so quickly, or send packet 3 separate from packet 4. Check out the boards for the specific country and look at some timelines to get a better idea of what you're looking at.

Congratulations!!

Also, if the cosponsor's income alone is sufficient, have them leave all the asset questions blank and use a tax return transcript instead of a complete return.

Great, I didn't know that was an option and I think that would make everyone involved feel much more secure about it. Thank you!

You need a co-sponsor, you need to make 18,212$ USD a year. The USC is the one sponsoring the Beneficiary.

Thanks so much for your quick reply!

Okay, I need a co-sponsor... would I just have the co-sponsor fill out an I-134, then make sure that it's included with the documentation on the day of the K1 interview?

This is sort of another question, but I'm not entirely comfortable walking around with a form that has so much of someone's personal information on it. Can I-134 be sent directly to the consulate?

Hey guys,

We've just received our NOA2, and I'm starting to worry about how to present our financial situation at the interview.

I am a 25-year-old, second-year medical student in the US. At this point I have absolutely no financial debt as I am supported by my parents and am ineligible for federal student loans (which most med students live off of). I have a few thousand dollars in savings. I have the ability to take out private student loans (for personal/living expenses) if it becomes necessary. However, the fact of the matter is that I made $2500 last year.

My fiance is a very hard-working nurse technician in Peru, but he has switched jobs several times in the past year. His earnings don't compare to the I-134 and I-864 requirements and are unlikely to impress anyone at the consulate; however, he also has a couple thousand dollars in savings. He has a son, who will probably stay in Peru for the time being, who we will help support.I have no doubt that we can make ends meet without a problem in the US, even before he gets his green card - we're moving to a cheaper area, etc.

The problem is... How is this all going to come across? We don't know if we'll be asked for an I-134 sponsor or not; if we get one, will that be enough? Would it make any sense to take a loan before the interview, to have some extra cash?

And, how bad will it be if I'm not able to make it for the interview? I'm taking boards soon and it will be very hard to get away - plus, money spent on plane tickets now will be money that we don't have during the next step.

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!!